The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka (1915)

the carpet.
‘Something has fallen in there,’ said the manager in the
next room on the left. Gregor tried to imagine to himself
whether anything similar to what was happening to him today
could have also happened at some point to the manager.
At least one had to concede the possibility of such a thing.
However, as if to give a rough answer to this question, the
manager now took a few determined steps in the next room,
with a squeak of his polished boots. From the neighbouring
room on the right the sister was whispering to inform
Gregor: ‘Gregor, the manager is here.’ ‘I know,’ said Gregor
to himself. But he did not dare make his voice loud enough
so that his sister could hear.
‘Gregor,’ his father now said from the neighbouring
room on the left, ‘Mr. Manager has come and is asking why
you have not left on the early train. We don’t know what we
should tell him. Besides, he also wants to speak to you personally.
So please open the door. He will good enough to
forgive the mess in your room.’
In the middle of all this, the manager called out in a
friendly way, ‘Good morning, Mr. Samsa.’ ‘He is not well,’
said his mother to the manager, while his father was still
talking at the door, ‘He is not well, believe me, Mr. Manager.
Otherwise how would Gregor miss a train! The young man
has nothing in his head except business. I’m almost angry
that he never goes out at night. Right now he’s been in the
city eight days, but he’s been at home every evening. He sits
there with us at the table and reads the newspaper quietly
or studies his travel schedules. It’s a quite a diversion for
him if he busies himself with fretwork. For instance, he cut
out a small frame over the course of two or three evenings.
You’d be amazed how pretty it is. It’s hanging right inside
the room. You’ll see it immediately, as soon as Gregor opens
the door. Anyway, I’m happy that you’re here, Mr. Manager.
By ourselves, we would never have made Gregor open the
door. He’s so stubborn, and he’s certainly not well, although
he denied that this morning.’
‘I’m coming right away,’ said Gregor slowly and deliberately
and didn’t move, so as not to lose one word of the
conversation. ‘My dear lady, I cannot explain it to myself
in any other way,’ said the manager; ‘I hope it is nothing serious.
On the other hand, I must also say that we business
people, luckily or unluckily, however one looks at it, very
often simply have to overcome a slight indisposition for
business reasons.’ ‘So can Mr. Manager come in to see you
now’ asked his father impatiently and knocked once again
on the door. ‘No,’ said Gregor. In the neighbouring room on
the left a painful stillness descended. In the neighbouring
room on the right the sister began to sob.
Why didn’t his sister go to the others? She’d probably
just gotten up out of bed now and hadn’t even started to get
dressed yet. Then why was she crying? Because he wasn’t
getting up and wasn’t letting the manager in; because he
was in danger of losing his position, and because then his
boss would badger his parents once again with the old demands?
Those were probably unnecessary worries right
now. Gregor was still here and wasn’t thinking at all about
abandoning his family. At the moment he was lying right
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